The conversion provider shortlist is empty, and here is what would fill it

Named shortlist: still empty. The phrase ecommerce conversion best providers describes a search question, not a defensible winner. No exact service edition had both a complete current admission dossier and comparable buyer-controlled synthetic test evidence by the cut-off. The conversion provider shortlist is empty, and six named candidates below are what would fill it.

Method: require the same legal, operational and test record from every candidate. Research date: 6 September 2026. Scope: services documented as available for one adult-customer online-store journey operated by an England merchant.

Inclusions: an exact contracting entity, exact edition, current UK record and every non-compensating gate below. Exclusions: anonymous offers, undated pages and testimonials. Directory scores, inferred clients, claimed uplift and incomplete dossiers also fail. Ranking: non-ranked; none admitted. Conflicts: none declared and no commercial funding or affiliate relationship.

An empty result is not an adverse finding about any company. It says only that this research did not assemble the evidence needed for a named comparison under the stated method.

What to take away

Candidates that would fill the shortlist

Six UK providers sit inside the scope on paper. Each needs a completed dossier before any comparison, and none has one yet. Naming them is not a ranking.

Conversion Rate Experts, London. Founded in 2007 by Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson. It works with a small roster of clients and caps how many new ones it takes each year. Published case studies include Moz and Crazy Egg. It suits merchants with enough traffic to run controlled tests.

Conversion.com, London. An experimentation and conversion agency. It describes its focus as retail, travel and subscription brands, and runs A/B and multivariate testing programmes. That means access to analytics, tag management and a development queue.

PRWD, Manchester. Conversion optimisation and usability, led by Paul Rouke. It publishes CRO research and runs ongoing programmes for retailers and lead-generation sites.

RedEye, London. RedEye covers conversion optimisation, personalisation and marketing automation. It names retail and travel among its sectors.

Hallam, Nottingham. A digital agency with a dedicated conversion team. It describes its clients as mid-market ecommerce and B2B, usually alongside paid search and SEO retainers.

ClickThrough Marketing, Staffordshire. CRO runs beside paid media and SEO here. The agency offers conversion audits, ongoing testing and published CRO guidance on its site.

For merchants that prefer to test in-house, the alternative is a platform licence from VWO, Optimizely or AB Tasty. Each quotes enterprise pricing on request, with entry tiers for smaller teams.

1. Verify identity without inferring quality

The dossier needs the legal contracting entity, trading names, service, edition and current UK availability. The government's company-information guidance explains which filed details can be retrieved. A registered address or officer record does not verify a conversion method, customer outcome or service fitness.

If payment services are part of the proposal, identify the company performing that role. The FCA says users should check the company behind a brand and its permissions through the Financial Services Register. A record remains evidence of regulatory status within its scope, never a recommendation.

2. Match the service to the merchant job

Require a versioned service description covering product evidence, total price, basket, checkout and order states. Payment, fulfilment, cancellation and return belong in the same document, as do refunds and disputes. The candidate must identify inputs, outputs, exclusions and merchant dependencies.

GOV.UK's online-selling guidance shows why a payment obligation, delivery costs and error correction are part of the journey, not optional conversion details.

3. Open the commercial record

Request the order form, terms, support, change and correction provisions. Suspension and exit terms belong there too. Price fields require currency, VAT basis, chargeable unit, billing period and term. Eligibility, limits, promotions and refund consequences are also required. They remain unknown here. A figure without those dimensions cannot support like-for-like comparison.

4. Complete the independent gates

Map data purposes, device operations, UK GDPR roles, subprocessors and transfers. Retention, export and deletion need mapping too. The ICO's April 2026 storage and access guidance supplies the current tracking boundary.

Consumer-price, accessibility, product-safety, payment and cyber-security reviewers must each decide their own gate. A strong answer elsewhere cannot offset a stop.

5. Use one controlled script

Admitted candidates would face the same synthetic journey. It opens with an approved product and price. An optional choice follows, then valid, missing and duplicate events. Refused tracking, payment authorisation and capture, and refund and dispute states follow. Accessible tasks, access removal, rollback, export and deletion close it out.

The NCSC's supplier-assurance questions support checking incident response, remote access, subcontractors and data return or deletion.

No live customer data or production store should enter this test. A result belongs only to the recorded edition, build, configuration and date. It would not prove lawfulness, market coverage, sustained performance or causal commercial effect.

What happens next

The buyer can invite the six named candidates to complete the blank dossier. Publication remains on HOLD until evidence can be opened, the common test is independently witnessed and all specialist gates clear. If no dossier reaches that point, keeping the named shortlist empty is the accurate decision.

Before you act

Common questions

Why is the named shortlist empty?

No exact service edition had both a complete current admission dossier and comparable buyer-controlled synthetic test evidence by the cut-off. This is not an adverse finding about any company. The research did not assemble the evidence needed for a named comparison under the stated method.

Which providers are named here?

Conversion Rate Experts and Conversion.com are in London, and PRWD is in Manchester. RedEye is in London, Hallam in Nottingham and ClickThrough Marketing in Staffordshire. Platform alternatives are VWO, Optimizely and AB Tasty. None has completed the dossier, so none is ranked.

What must a candidate dossier contain?

It needs the legal contracting entity, trading names, service, edition and current UK availability. It also needs a versioned service description for the order journey, covering payment, fulfilment, cancellation and return, plus refund and dispute handling. The order form, terms and support provisions are required, as are change, suspension and exit terms.

What happens before publication resumes?

The buyer can invite candidates to complete the blank dossier. Publication remains on hold until evidence can be opened, the common test is independently witnessed and all specialist gates clear. If no dossier reaches that point, keeping the named shortlist empty is the accurate decision.